Say What?

Say What? Micah can hardly believe it either...actually this is his "muscle face." He is such an animated kid, always cracking us up. But I wanted to journal about how our vitamins and supplements have changed our family. If you ask Chad, he'll tell you that I'm a pretty big skeptic. So a year ago when we started researching Shaklee products, I didn't take it lightly. I worked on digging up dirt on this company, but I had no success. In fact I found that they had NO product recalls over their entire history (1950s) and are known for purity and strict manufacturing standards. But I digress.

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When we were at the seminary, we started visiting a chiropractor who revolutionized the way we thought about our diet and the way we viewed food/supplements/antiobiotics/chemicals/ingredients/vaccinations/seeds/hormones/etc. There were also some seminary friends (hi Mary and Sara) who loved to visit about herbs and alternative meds. Knowing that we cannot get all the vitamins and minerals that our bodies crave to keep us healthy, and knowing that many of the vitamins and supplements on the store shelf are practically worthless, we began to take a supplement called Standard Process. It was great and it's a popular supplement with chiropractors. As time went on, we had been visiting with several different friends about healthy (healthier, hey we do the best we can) eating and it was just fun to hear their stories. Several of them also used the Standard Process vitamins and supplements, go to the chiropractor religiously, grind their own wheat berries, use the herbs in their herb gardens to create tinctures and salves, plant nonGMO seeds, etc....all things that interest us (and I should mention that we only do some of the things I just mentioned, ha). Anyway, we have a good friend named Greta who was telling me about some Shaklee supplements that she was really impressed with, and brought relief to her husband (he's even more of a skeptic). I was intrigued because one of our little guys struggled with eczema and we were hoping to get some relief for him. We thought we'd give Shaklee a try (the cost was actually less than what we were paying for SP) and I could go on and on but the bottom line is: we're really happy and so glad to have witnessed what all these supplements can do!

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As I mentioned, it's been a year and our family has a TON of stories. We have a three year old not itching (nutriferon, alfalfa); a seven year old who is more focused and less weepy during school and no longer struggling with growing pains (vit. B and calcium magnesium); an eleven year old who is less teary and anxious at bedtime (calcium magnesium); a teen with better breath (optiflora probiotic); a mommy who no longer craves an afternoon nap, isn't always hungry, has healthier skin, is less cranky during certain times of the month and weighs 13 lbs. less than when she got pregnant with her last baby (vitalizer (chuck full of things like Vit D, B complex, Probiotics, Omega, etc) and whey/soy protein) and a daddy who isn't eating tylenol by the handfuls due to headaches (multivitamin and vit. B). Our family was hit by both the flu and a respiratory bug this winter and we were able to all recover in days versus weeks, like we used to in the past. If we feel a cold coming on, we have been able to overcome it within a day if we catch it. All these blessings IN ADDITION to having healthy cleaning products (the kids can help with no stress and I don't miss my lungs burning while cleaning the shower!). I cannot tell you the peace of mind we get from using an all natural laundry detergent for all these little ones. I'll be honest, I never thought we'd say "goodbye" to Tide. But once we started to research the harmful effects of laundry detergent chemicals - we just couldn't continue. So there you have it, skeptic turned believer. Let me know if you're interested in knowing more, I know of a kind and caring distributor, who happens to be a hunk ;).

And one more product that I wanted to share about is one we love and have researched - deoderant. It might sound a little weird but aluminum is a neurtoxin (though some of the studies are inconclusive), it's in deoderant and it's only one of the many ingredients that are questionable. Anyway, Alvera is the winner! Take our word, we've done the experimenting for you - nobody wants be healthy AND have B.O.! Right?! We check prices on amazon and vitacom. It's shockingly cheap and works! Another little hidden ingredient (this one may cause you to stop reading the blog now) is BHT: While less commonly used, this bad-boy is linked in studies to nervous-system effects at low doses, is dubbed "expected to be toxic or harmful" by Environment Canada's Domestic Substance List, and there are studies linking it to the C-word. I hate to have to share this with you, but it's also in cereal boxes (seriously, check). I was listening to a speaker once that mentioned that even rats won't touch the stuff. Really? So, we check for that and try to avoid most anything with a lot of fragrance. So we've changed a few things over the years, we don't live in fear but we try to be wise about what we use.

2 Timother 1:7

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.